These are epigrams by Michael R. Burch and his translations of epigrams by other poets ...
Love is either wholly folly,
or fully holy.
—Michael R. Burch
Love has the value
of gold, if it’s true;
if not, of rue.
—Michael R. Burch
God's ultimate masterpiece is a mother's heart.
—St. Therese of Lisieux, loose translation/interpretation/paraphrase by Michael R. Burch
Mother: the tenderest word on the world's lips.
—Khalil Gibran, loose translation/interpretation/paraphrase by Michael R. Burch
A question that sometimes drives me hazy:
am I or are the others crazy?
—Albert Einstein, poetic interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Let me live with joy today, since tomorrow is unforeseeable.
—Palladas of Alexandria, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Love renders reason senseless.
—Rumi, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Truths are more likely discovered by one man than by nations.
—Rene Descartes, translation by Michael R. Burch
Wayne Gretzky was pure skill poured into skates.
—Michael R. Burch
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The First Complete Musical Composition
Shine, while you live;
blaze beyond grief,
for life is brief
and Time, a thief.
—Michael R. Burch, after Seikilos of Euterpes
The so-called Seikilos Epitaph is the oldest known surviving complete musical composition which includes musical notation. It is believed to date to the first or second century AD. The epitaph appears to be signed “Seikilos of Euterpes” or dedicated “Seikilos to Euterpe.” Euterpe was the ancient Greek Muse of music.
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To write an epigram, cram.
If you lack wit, scram!
—Michael R. Burch
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Woeful Waffles
by Michael R. Burch
for and after Richard Thomas Moore
I think it’s woeful
and should be unlawful
to eat those awful
tofu
waffles!
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I have suffused myself in poetry
as a lizard basks, soaking up sun,
scales nakedly glinting; its glorious light
he understands—when it comes, it comes…
—Michael R. Burch, "Sun Poem"
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Apologies to España
by Michael R. Burch
The reign
in Trump’s brain
falls mainly as mansplain.
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Adam’s Rib vs. Women’s Lib
by Michael R. Burch
We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all women were created sequel ...
***
Hell hath no Fury like our furry Führer.
—Michael R. Burch
Teddy Roosevelt spoke softly and carried a big stick;
Donald Trump speaks loudly and carries a big shtick.
—Michael R. Burch
Thanks to politicians like George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann and Donald Trump, we now have a duh-mock-racy.
—Michael R. Burch
Justice may be blind, but does she have to be deaf too?—Michael R. Burch
There is nothing at all supreme, nor anything remotely just, about Clarence Thomas.—Michael R. Burch
Religion is the difficult process of choosing the least malevolent invisible friends.
—Michael R. Burch
If God has the cattle on a thousand hills,
why does he need my tithes to pay his bills?
—Michael R. Burch
If every witty thing that’s said were true,
Oscar Wilde, the world would worship You!
—Michael R. Burch
The best tonic for other people's bad ideas is to think for oneself.—Michael R. Burch
This dream of nothingness we so fear
is salvation clear.
—Michael R. Burch
If one screams below, what the hell is “Above”?
—Michael R. Burch
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Ars Brevis, Proofreading Longa
by Michael R. Burch
for Brooke Clark
Poets may labor from sun to sun,
but their editor's work is never done.
***
Fleet Tweet: Apologies to Shakespeare
@mikerburch (Michael R. Burch)
A tweet
by any other name
would be as fleet.
***
Fleet Tweet II: Further Apologies to Shakespeare
@mikerburch (Michael R. Burch)
Remember, doggonit,
heroic verse crowns the Shakespearean sonnet!
So if you intend to write a couplet,
please do it on the doublet!
***
Booksellers laud authors for novel editions
as pimps praise their whores for exotic positions.
—Thomas Campion, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
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Thirty
by Michael R. Burch
Thirty crept upon me slowly
with feline caution and a slowly-twitching tail ...
How patiently she waited for the winds to shift!
Now, claws unsheathed, she lies seething to assail
her helpless prey.
***
Star Crossed
by Michael R. Burch
Remember—
night is not like day;
the stars are closer than they seem ...
now, bending near, they seem to say
the morning sun was merely a dream
ember.
***
Death
by Michael R. Burch
Black waters—deep and dark and still.
All men have passed this way, or will.
The seed returns to earth; the shell
lies rooted in dark clay; the spell
of senselessness—the mind swept clear—
is all of Death we have to fear ...
And yet a lofty, troubled bell
still sadly bids the freed, “Farewell!”
I wrote “Death” around age 18 but wasn’t happy with the poem and published the first two lines separately as “Styx.” A mere 45 years later I returned to the longer poem and finally completed it, at age 63!
***
Native American Prayer
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Help us learn the lessons you have left us here
in every leaf and rock.
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If God has the cattle on a thousand hills,
why does he need my tithes to pay his bills?
—Michael R. Burch
God and his "profits" could never agree
on any gospel acceptable to an intelligent flea.
—Michael R. Burch
since GOD created u so gullible
how did u conclude HE’s so lovable?
—Michael R. Burch
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Adam Gopnik called Randall Jarrell the “best-equipped” American poetry critic of the past century; he may have been the “best quipped” as well.—Michael R. Burch
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The Shrinking Season
by Michael R. Burch
With every wearying year
the weight of the winter grows
and while the schoolgirl outgrows
her clothes,
the widow disappears
in hers.
Published by Angle, Poem Today (featured poem), Heartfelt Death Poems, Girls and Goblins and Madly Jane
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Ophelia
by Michael R. Burch
for Kevin N. Roberts
Ophelia, madness suits you well,
as the ocean sounds in an empty shell,
as the moon shines brightest in a starless sky,
as suns supernova before they die ...
***
"Lu Zhai" ("Deer Park")
by Wang Wei (699-759)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Uninhabited hills ...
except that now and again the silence is broken
by something like the sound of distant voices
as the sun's sinking rays illuminate lichens ...
Wang Wei (699-759) was a Chinese poet, musician, painter, and politician during the Tang dynasty. He had 29 poems included in the 18th-century anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems. "Lu Zhai" ("Deer Park") is one of his best-known poems.
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Be as golden within as without.—Michael R. Burch, "Suntan lines"
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I will never grok picking a picky rule over a Poem! – Michael R. Burch
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Brief Fling
by Michael R. Burch
“Epigram”
means cram,
then scram!
Keywords/Tags: epigram, epigrams, love, folly, holy, joy, today, tomorrow, politics, religion, God
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